LETTER TO THE SECRETARY OF WAR. 23 



NORTHERN PACIFIC EAILROAD EXPLORATION AND SURVEY, 



Fort Benton, Upper Missouri, September 8, 1853. 



SIR: Dr. Evans, the geologist of the expedition, will precede me through the mountains, and 

 going with a light pack train, will reach the mails a fortnight before me. I have made every 

 exertion to prepare my accounts in season for estimates for Congress, at the commencement of 

 its session ; but having not yet even met or communicated with the parties west of the mount 

 ains, I can only make a conjectural estimate. With great exertion on my part to reduce 

 expense and to push through my operations, I am obliged to report that the allotment made of 

 $40,000 from the appropriation for the survey will be entirely exhausted by the close and per 

 haps by the middle of next month. I do not feel justified to suspend operations. We are on 

 the eve of complete success. My parties are now exploring the passes of the mountains. My 

 intercourse with the Indians has been of the most satisfactory character. The Blackfeet In 

 dians have sent their chiefs and braves to invite me to their camps ; not a horse has been stolen, 

 not a man touched ; no private article has been missed. They have brought our disabled ani 

 mals into camp, and acted as guides and guards. These Indians sent their war parties to the 

 California trail, and horses believed to be stolen from our emigrants by the Crows are actually 

 taken to the camps of the formidable Blackfeet, under the 49th parallel. To-day I set out with 

 a small party , with Mr. Culbertson, the special agent, to visit a large Piegan camp at their 

 most favorite resort, the Cypress mountains, one hundred and twenty miles north of this point. 

 My object is twofold: to secure guides for the examination of the Marias Pass; and to bring 

 about a general pacification of all the tribes north of the Missouri, and those immediately west 

 of the mountains, on the basis of the treaty of Laramie. I shall, in a letter of this date to the 

 Commissioner of the Indian Bureau, recommend a council to be held next year at some suitable 

 point, say Fort Benton, and shall urge the passage of an appropriation of money to defray the 

 expenses. I do not doubt that complete success will attend it, and that hereafter a single man 

 will be able to go unmolested through these vast plains. 



In view of the great results which I am of opinion this expedition is on the eve of accom 

 plishing, I do not feel that I would fulfil the reasonable expectations of the department by sus 

 pending operations. It seems to me my highest obligation is to continue vigorously the work 

 placed in my charge, and to get results which will justify the expenditure of means. Believing 

 that the department and Congress will sanction this course, I shall vigorously pursue the work, 

 reducing the force on the approach of winter to the smallest amount compatible with an efficient 

 winter organization, and one which in the spring can at a moment be increased for a full re 

 sumption of the work. This I will earnestly recommend. An instrumental survey should be 

 made of the best mountain passess, both of the Rocky mountain and Cascade range. The inter 

 mediate lines should be reviewed. The astronomical, magnetic, and meteorological observations 

 should be continued. A large expenditure has been made; trained men are in the field, and all 

 the appliances are at hand. I shall not suspend the work till I receive the instructions of the 

 department to this effect. 



Estimate for continuing the work to the close of the present fiscal year is, monthly, as follows: 



October 15 to 30, 1853 $2,^500 



November, 1853 5,000 



December, 1853 3,000 



January, 1854 3,000 



February, 1854 3,000 



March, 1854 3,000 



April, 1854 3,000 



May, 1854 3,500 



June, 1854 4,000 



30,000 



